PHOTOGRAPHY
Morning Frost
A glimpse into the cold months coming ahead
It’s Saturday morning and we’re heading to my parents' garden plot. By foot. It’s just before midday and the sun is barely visible behind the forest. She won’t climb any higher today. It is November. We don’t get much sunshine these days.
It seems like we had a cold night. In every corner I can still see the white. Frost. A white layer of frozen water drops is covering the grass.
Luckily I decided to carry my camera backpack with me. Gotta have the right lens on my camera if I go for a stroll. A stroll behind bushes and trees. Looking for the shady and cold places where these lovely white crystals are still alive.
Frost is an art. An art placed on nature only visible during the cold November mornings. It won’t be seen anymore once the snowfall sets in. Or when the sun’s too strong. But right now it’s there.
Autumn leaves on the ground are also included in the art project. Every leaf is covered in a white, icy layer of frostiness. Something that makes you pull your jacket tighter and put the gloves back on.
The frost steals the colorful power of fall’s leaves. No more shining red, orange, and yellow. The color has vanished. Taken over by the cold white.
Looking at my rock garden I spot a few plants taken over by the power of the frost. The tips of the succulents are white. Making it look like they were dipped into sugar.
“The ‘earth’ without ‘art’ is just ‘eh’. “— Unknown
Others just got a painting across their leaves. Tiny crystals of coldness spreading over themselves.
I zoom in more to get the real feeling of frost out of them. To capture the iciness in these photographs. Yet will you ever feel the cold I felt when taking the picture? I doubt it. Some things simply can’t be included in a simple photograph.
Towards the end, I feel like I captured all the plants covered in a white layer. Except for the grass. The grass seems so boring. It’s always there. Yet look at it closely. How magical these frozen drops of water are hanging on a single blade of grass.
Only a few hours later it all vanished. The magic of the morning frost. The temperature did rise just enough to melt all the ice. And all the art is gone. Some art is for eternity. Some has a very short lifespan. Depending on how and where it got created.
This one will come back. But it will never look the same. Still, this art will always have the magic of the icy mornings.
“If I’m walking on thin ice, I might as well dance my way across.” — Mercedes Lackey
I am a traveler. Photographer. Writer. Teacher. Skydiving instructor. Adventure enthusiast. Nature lover. And fell in love with the African continent.
